One Teacher's Adventures

I live in Victoria, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island in BC.  We have had hot, dry weather for weeks, which has caused many wild fires to blaze around the province.  Here is a map with active fires in BC. With so many fires blazing for so long, the smoke has gathered in the atmosphere and has settled over Vancouver Island.  Residents of the southern island woke up this morning to an orange haze filling the sky.  It was so bad that NASA took this picture from space showing the smoke. Here are some photos that I took today as the smoke got heavier and heavier. This is the sky when I first woke up The sun had a ring around it. There were crows circling around the park, which gave off a scary movie feel to the day. The smoke became so thick that the sun could barely shine. My sister and I took my nephew to the park and it was really creepy with the orange haze. I'm wondering if anyone in Washington State, Alaska, or in other parts of...

Today was the last day of classes in my district.  While I am very ready for the summer break, I will definitely miss my group of Grade 4s.   As a year-end gift, I decided to create a Wordle for my partner teacher with all of our students' names.  Wordles are word clouds that you can make for free ( click here ).  You simply type text into the wordle box, and the program generates a word cloud that you can edit for font, colour, and configuration.  The program uses an algorithm that increases the size of words that are repeated more often. My Wordle looked like this: I loved this so much that I decided to something similar, but more special, for the kids.  First, I gave every student a page with all their classmates names on it.  I asked them to write down three words to describe everyone else in the class.  (We brainstormed a list of about 50 or 60 positive adjectives before they began and I wrote them all on the chalkboard). Then I...

I can't believe it's already August 8!  I've been away from this blog for awhile, and it's because I've been trying to enjoy the gorgeous weather we've been having in Victoria. Since Saturday, I've been housesitting (and dog sitting) for my parents.  There is a lovely trail near their house that Kasey (the dog) likes, and during one of our walks, I took some pictures.   Last night, while we were walking, there was a gorgeous sunset, so I snapped some pictures then, too! I've also been busy catching up with some great friends.  My friend, Nicole, is in town from Calgary.  We went to university together, then she moved to Alberta to teach.  I haven't seen her since her wedding almost 4 years ago!  It's been far too long!  We got together last night with another friend, Emily, and did some touristy things around Victoria.  We spent some time at Fisherman's Wharf - a float home village in the Victoria Harbo...

I know I've been away from this blog for awhile; I've been enjoying my much needed summer break!  This is the first summer since I was 16 that I haven't worked full time.  I've been working part time as a sub in a daycare, and it has been so much fun, but I've also had real summery days off! I was excited about taking time off during the summer until the last few weeks of the school year when we were forced to go on strike.  I have definitely been hit financially, but the hot, sunny days are (almost) making up for it. I've been spending my free days at the beach, floating on Lake Matheson, day camping, reading, hanging out with my nephew, going to movies, picketing, reading, making clip art, trying not to think about and plan for next year (technically I'm not allowed to do ay official planning, as I am on strike and locked out of the job), and relaxing. Here is a look at my summer so far... We've been having the most beautiful sunsets recently! ...

Hello everyone!  I've been a little M.I.A. this past week - my apologies!  I've been trying to catch up on end-of-the-year marking.  My students have 3 weeks to go until summer vacation, but a few of them seem to be in summer mode already... I think I need a drink!